12

The Blessed

And Cumhal saw like a drifting smoke
All manner of blessedest souls,

Children and women and tonsured young men,
And old men with croziers and stoles.

“ Praise God and God’s Mother,” Dathi said,

“ For God and God’s Mother have sent
The blessedest souls that walk in the world
To fill your heart with content.”

“ And who is the blessedest,” Cumhal said,
“ Where all are comely and good ?

Is it those that with golden thuribles
Are singing about the wood ? ”

“ My eyes are blinking,” Dathi said,
“With the secrets of God half blind.
But I have found where the wind goes
And follow the way of the wind ;

“ And blessedness goes where the wind goes
And when it is gone we die ;

And have seen the blessedest soul in the world,
By a spilled wine-cup lie.

“ O blessedness comes in the night and the day,
And whither the wise heart knows ;

And one has seen, in the redness of wine,

The Incorruptible Rose :

“ The